Thousands participated in the #MeToo March on Sunday, November 12, walking down Hollywood Boulevard in response to the sexual allegations that had surfaced recently in the entertainment industry. This video shows marchers chanting “Rise up for the women of the world, for the women of the world, rise up” as they walked. The #MeToo movement gained traction online when actress Alyssa Milano, following the allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein, sent out a tweet inviting women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted to write “me too” as a status. Facebook reported that 12 million posts, comments and reactions were recorded within 24 hours of the tweet. Credit: Facebook/John Akroe via Storyful

November 13th 2017

3 months ago

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Upcoming Hollywood award season could be the most politically charged and controversial yet. Picture: AFPSource:AFP

Many Hollywood insiders are secretly dreading awards season, as the industry is continually rocked by daily sexual harassment and assault scandals in the wake of Harvey Weinstein’s fall.

“Just think of all those speeches, oh God,” one female rep says, imagining the onslaught of intense words from winners.

As far as the actual awards, predictions now skew toward films about — and made by — women, such as Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman and Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled, with a turn away from more masculine fare such as Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk.

Expect a litany of speeches dealing with Hollywood’s sexual misconduct crisis when award season rolls around.Source:AFP

Says another industry vet of the wave of harassment revelations, “It was actually always here ... but [we believed it was committed] just by a few. Now it seems like it was literally 50 per cent of all men in Hollywood. That is starting to stir, and we will see the year of awards ‘retribution.’ ”

But a female exec points out, “It’s sad for women in some sense — that if this is ‘their year,’ it could be seen as backlash against the establishment rather than [as] deserving work. Bittersweet.” Either way, “It will be interesting to see the business post-purge in Hollywood.”

This story was originally published on the New York Post and is republished here with permission.